VWinds Double Reed Intro Price $149USD & Review By The Most Honest YouTube Reviewer of Sample Libraries That I Know Of

[PavlovsCat]

TL; DR VERSION
Cory Pelazzari, IMO, is the most honest YouTube influencer doing sample library reviews that I know of. He's also pretty thorough. After he had a very negative experience with a well known sample developer that didn't like Cory's heavily critical reviews of their sample libraries -- and, according to Cory, threatened to sue him if he didn't take down critical video reviews of their libraries  (they offered him suggestions to create more positive review videos of their libraries) -- to the point that he refers to as bullying --he's back and he's put up a couple of reviews in the last several days. 

The first review is for Acoustic Samples Vwinds Double Reeds library. The library is currently on intro pricing for $149 USD, and will go up to $219 USD after the intro period. You can skip below for the links or read on if you want to understand my experience with this influencer and why I think he's worth listening to and the realities of the pressures he's faced from sample developers for giving highly critical reviews. But if you're not into my mega posting, feel free to skip to the video and link below.  
 

THE LONG VERSION AND SOME "INSIDE BASEBALL" STUFF ON INFLUENCERS AND DEVELOPERS
WHY CORY PELAZZARI IS PROBABLY THE MOST HONEST YOUTUBE "REVIEWER" OF SAMPLE LIBRARIES YOU'LL FIND AND SOME OF THE DETAILS BEHIND THE INFAMOUS VI-CONTROL THREAD THAT LEVERAGES HIS STORY TO LAUNCH AN ATTACK ON A SAMPLE DEVELOPER (BY CONTRACTORS OF THEIR COMPETITOR WHO DIDN"T DISCLOSE THAT RELATIONSHIP UNTIL THE DEVELOPER THEY WERE ATTACKING BROUGHT IT UP)

Most people don't know how influencers doing "reviews" actually work and if they did, I'm sure that they would see the whole operation as shilling. To be very candid, most influencers can fairly be considered brand pitch people (or salespeople) -- often posing as unbiased reviewers when they are compensated by the developer  being reviewed -- cashing in on the reach that they have to an audience that a brand wants to get their message to.  While a brand can reach that audience with advertising, advertising doesn't come with the trust of an influencer with his or her audience and that is what influencers sell to brands, the value of the trust that they have with their audience and using that trust to pitch a brand's products to that audience.  In modern marketing planning, virtually every product rollout plan for a consumer and many business products and services consider influencers an important part of of a new rollouts and on-going promotion. Even though a lot small developers commonly rely on influencers to reach their target markets. Even the less successful influencers -- those with a reach say,  under 20,000 people -- will commonly ride a gravy train of free NFR product and sales commissions (AKA affiliate marketing), while the most successful influencers are often paid upfront for the products they "review" and the brands they review are commonly granted permission to see the videos the influencers make before they are released so that the brands -- in this market's case, the developers -- can discuss making edits, basically to remove opinions they don't like, such as comments they find unfavorable towards their "reviewed product." Just a little tip. You can easily spot influencers who are certainly not going to give you honest reviews. They don't say anything too critical about the products they review. Another easy way to spot a shill is that they do promo videos for the developers they review. Consider this basic giveaway clue on bias.  If an influencer says something too critical about a developer's product, the gravy train will dry up and the NFRs and cash will no longer come their way. All of that amounts to an enormous pressure for an influencer to avoid saying anything too critical in a "review." 

So as a marketing pro, there are some things I look for that tell me that the influencer I am watching may be sincere and not merely shilling and heavily editing for a developer. One of those clues is whether the influencer says something so critical you can be certain that no developer would want to hear it. I can count on one hand the influencers in this space that do that. One of them, really the only one I know in this space that will be incredibly critical is Cory Pelzzari. I became a fan of his after watching a video for a drum sample library I was considering. Cory's review was thorough and super helpful -- and brutally honest. It was surprising how honest. I thought, this guy has guts, because there is no way the developer of the reviewed library Cory just explained is unredeemably poor will ever give him an NFR to review again. And the developer clearly didn't pre- approve that video. Cory's rock video saved me from buying that sample library. I immediately sent a link of the video to a sample developer friend of mine that I've consulted to in the past to tell him this was the most honest influencer I've ever witnessed in this space and I challenged my developer friend to send him his libraries for review. As I knew this developer makes the best libraries in his area of specialty plus he has the integrity and humility to respect an honest review and criticism. His reply? He's already in communication with Cory and feels the same way about him that I do. 

So those of you who spend time at VI Control may have seen a recent very controversial thread where the OP brought up Cory and his critical review of a sample developer and that developer's subsequent battle with Cory to take his video reviews down. FTR, that thread wasn't exactly as it appeared. But I'll focus on Cory's story.  According to Cory, one of the partners of a well-known sample developer heavily objected to Cory's very critical review videos of their libraries and threatened to sue him of he didn't take them down. She also tried to persuade him to make new review videos that were more favorable to the developer,  which she would pre approve before going live. Cory felt intimidated and dialogued with her, but didn't want to compromise his integrity. But the legal threats did worry him. 

Upon learning this story, I wanted to intervene to protect the independence/free speech that made this influencer so valuable.  A decade prior the developer had called me for marketing and branding advice, so I thought I'd contact him to see if I could get help better the relationship between his company and Cory. We had a series of friendly chats, but I didn't feel my involvement made any difference and I  suspect that his partner was the bigger part of the problem. I did recommend that threatening a slander lawsuit for a critical review is baseless and ridiculous and they really should not be engaged in putting that kind of pressure on this influencer,  and with those tactics now being public, it would especially be a good idea to stop those actions. I advised Cory to ignore the threats of legal action,  as slander is when someone tells damaging lies, not when you give a harsh critique of a company's products.

So, why tell this story? Because I  want the community to know how much pressure there is on an honest influencer doing honest reviews so that they realize how difficult it is to be honest in that line of work. I also want folks to understand the dishonesty of the system so that they don't get manipulated. Successful influencers can make a lot of money and developers will compensate them in various ways and I wish there was complete transparency on that for everyone to see, because influencers like to present that they're providing unbiased reviews and they're absolutely not doing that. But then you have an individual like Cory who is doing something completely different and I want to see him succeed and have an impact on the way influencer marketing works so that it's more honest than it presently is. 

It's been several months since I first started communicating with Cory, and his negative experience with that developer really shook him. But he's back and I think he's worthy of our support. I love to see the good guys win, and I very much believe that Cory is one of the true good guys, a person of integrity. I would love to see him grow his success as a YouTuber and hope that my fellow forum members will give his channel a look. 

LINK TO THE VWINDS LIBRARY: 
https://www.acousticsamples.net/vwindsdoublereeds

Edited June 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat